Differential diagnosis in pharmacy practice: Time to adopt clinical reasoning and decision making.

The delivery of healthcare in most developed countries is under increasing pressure. Ageing populations with increasingly complex needs, coupled with financial constraints and imbalances in workforce, mean that healthcare policies look to contain cost and utilise resource as effectively as possible. Self-care is now widely advocated as a mechanism to manage acute presentations with pharmacy identified as a key resource to support such policy.

Over-the-counter medicines: their place in self-care.

Over the last 20 years, there has been a shift in Western countries' healthcare policy to empower patients to exercise self-care by taking greater control in managing their own health, especially in cases where their conditions are deemed minor and self-limiting. In the UK, this has been facilitated by the Department of Health in making more medicines available to the public without the need for a prescription. This article highlights how policy is affecting practice, what attitudes the public and health professionals have toward greater medicine availability, and considers their place in patient management.

Enquiry analysis and user opinion of the Drugs in Breastmilk Helpline: a prospective study.

Background: Since breastfeeding is universally recognised as the ideal way to feed infants, it is understandable, and at times inevitable, that breastfeeding mothers will want, or be required, to take medication. To meet the information demands of breastfeeding mothers and healthcare professionals, a UK charity, The Breastfeeding Network, established a free telephone helpline to answer queries on medicines in breastmilk. This study reports on the enquiries received by the Drugs in Breastmilk Helpline and user opinion of the service.

Numeracy skills of undergraduate entry level nurse, midwife and pharmacy students.

Background: The ability of healthcare professionals to perform basic numeracy and therefore dose calculations competently is without question. Research has primarily focused on nurses, and to a lesser extent doctors, ability to perform this function with findings highlighting poor aptitude. Studies involving pharmacists are few but findings are more positive than other healthcare staff.

Pharmacy professionalism and the digital age.

Objectives: To explore how the use of digital media could affect how people view professional behaviour.

Key Findings: The growth in social networking sites has been phenomenal and they are now an extremely popular medium for interacting with others both commercially and privately. This as-yet-uncontrolled digital media provides ample opportunities for public and professional scrutiny for the unwary.

Potential adverse reactions to herbal medicines in patients attending a nephrology clinic in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Objective: To provide data on herbal medicine (HM) use and safety in patients attending a nephrology clinic at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Methods: A prospective, 3-month study between June and September 2007, investigated all patients presenting to the Nephrology Clinic of the Sheikh Khalifa Medical center (SKMC) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. A structured questionnaire determined previous and current HM use, and descriptions of associated adverse reactions.

Utility and value of a medicines information service provided by pharmacists: a survey of health professionals.

Objectives: many health professionals lack the time and skills to search for and appraise information on medicines. A solution might be to use others skilled in evidence appraisal, who make recommendations or provide information tailored to patients' needs. The objectives of this study were to assess how advice provided to health professionals by the northwest of England regional medicines information centre is used, whether it is useful for patient care and to measure satisfaction with the service.

Medicine-related questions handled by community pharmacists: an exploratory study.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine what type of medicine-related questions community pharmacists were asked and to ascertain whether responses given were appropriate.

Methods: All community pharmacists from three Primary Care Trusts were invited to participate in a week-long exploratory study. Piloted data-collection forms were self-completed.

Can professionalism be measured?: evidence from the pharmacy literature.

Unlabelled: The need to ensure the future pharmacy workforce demonstrates professionalism has become important to both pharmacy educators and professional bodies.

Objective: To determine the extent to which Schools of Pharmacy have taught or measured student professionalism.

Methods: Review of the healthcare literature on teaching of professionalism at an undergraduate level.

A computer literacy skills profile of pharmacists residing in two counties of England.

Background: Pharmacy is an information intensive profession and a pharmacist has to be proficient in health care information management. The advance in information technology and the use of computers to access, retrieve and analyse this information is increasingly important. Yet little is known about pharmacists' computer literacy or information technology skills.

A cross-sectional survey of herbal remedy taking by United Arab Emirate (UAE) citizens in Abu Dhabi.

Purpose: To determine patterns of United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizen herbal medicine taking.

Methods: Questionnaire survey of UAE citizens attending a primary healthcare clinic in Abu Dhabi.

Results: Three hundred and thirty surveys were analysed.

Evaluation of community pharmacists' recommendations to standardized patient scenarios.

Background: Recent trends in the global nonprescription drug market show a massive increase in medicine availability to the general public. This places greater responsibility on community pharmacists to ensure that patients exercise self-care appropriately. This small study examined pharmacist performance in facilitating patient self-care.